Dark networks, transnational crime and security: the critical role of brokers

The growth of transnational organised crime has been widely perceived as a major national and international security threat. The growth has been facilitated by globalisation, in which people, money, information and goods flow more easily and rapidly across international borders. To take advantage of the illicit transnational business opportunities, crime groups have restructured from hierarchical organisations to more loosely structured configurations known as ‘dark networks.’ Crucial to the success of these networks are brokers, who enable exchanges between previously disconnected actors. In this paper, we present a new way in which to understand the role of the broker in illicit networks by distinguishing how brokers adopt different strategies that ultimately have a transactional or transformational impact on the networks they serve

Mexican Drug Cartels and Dark-Networks: An Emerging Threat to Australia's National Security

Over the past decade Mexican drug cartels’ power and the violent struggles between them have increased exponentially. Previously Mexico, and in particular the border regions with the US, were the key battle grounds for control of distribution routes. However, today Mexican drug cartels are now looking abroad in an attempt to extend their operations. This expansion has seen several cartels moving into lucrative international markets in Europe and the Asia Pacific. It is in this context that Australia has now become a target of several Mexican cartels. They have already established linkages in the Asia Pacific and are further attempting to strengthen and expand these — with a particular focus on penetrating the Australian market. These developments show how Mexican drug cartels operate as ‘dark-networks’, successfully creating a global system that seeks to capture new markets, and further extend their control and dominance of the flow of illicit drugs around the world. For Australia, the emergence of Mexican drug cartels in local markets presents not only criminal but strategic challenges. The size of these operations, their resources and ‘dark-network’ structure makes them a difficult opponent. Their presence threatens to not only increase the supply of illicit drugs in Australia, but encourage turf wars, increase the amount of guns in the country, tax border security resources and threaten the stability and good governance of South Pacific transit spots. This represents the end of Australia’s ‘tyranny of distance’, which previously acted as a buffer and protected Australia from the interests of remote criminal groups such as the Mexican cartels

A comparative study of legitimation strategies in hybrid regimes

The Institutions of Politics; Design, Workings, and implications ( do not use, ended 1-1-2020

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Post-Liberal Regionalism in Latin America and the Influence of Hugo Chavez

This article traces the shift in regional integration in Latin America from the 'open regionalism' of the 1990s to the current 'post-hegemonic' regionalism. We explore the contribution of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez in defining and promoting a distinc

Bhutan’s Reluctant Democrats and the Challenge of Legitimation

Establishing political legitimacy is a concern of all political regimes and leads to a range of legitimating techniques to suit particular circumstances and regime objectives. For Bhutan, the challenge has been how to legitimate a new democratic political order that did not result from citizen or elite pressure, the normal causes of democratic transition. This article addresses how legitimacy has been secured in Bhutan, a nation of “reluctant democrats”. It uses a methodology derived from an amalgam of longue durée and critical junctures to analyse the country’s unique process of democratisation, as some of the building blocks of contemporary democratic legitimation have old origins. By dividing Bhutanese history into four distinct periods and identifying four critical junctures, this article provides a full understanding of the nature and process of contemporary democratic legitimation. We pay special attention to the role of the monarchy in facilitating and securing acceptance of the new political order and in guaranteeing the monarchy’s future as a central pillar of that order. An important lesson of this article is the need to take a historical perspective when considering contemporary legitimacy as history reveals the building blocks on which today’s democratic regime legitimacy has been built and accepted.</p

What is a “Mafia State” and how is one created?

How do corrupt practices evolve into the almost complete criminalization of the state, and what are the conditions necessary for a mafia state to emerge? In this article, we trace Venezuela’s political trajectory under President Hugo Chávez and its causal connection to the consolidation of a mafia state under President Nicolás Maduro by identifying critical junctures that occurred under the administrations of Presidents Chávez and Maduro. These critical junctures first laid the foundations for the mafia state, albeit unintentionally, and then allowed and encouraged the criminalization of the state. The incremental abolition of governance institutions started by Chávez and continued by Maduro in the context of dramatic decline in oil production created an ideal environment in which criminal activities could thrive. By the end of this process, Venezuela had evolved into a complex kleptocracy in which no rule of law or institutions were capable of or willing to oppose the executive and its loyal military and irregular force allies. Thus, a mafia state is born.</p

Post-liberal regionalism in Latin America and the influence of Hugo Chavez

This article traces the shift in regional integration in Latin America from the 'open regionalism' of the 1990s to the current 'post-hegemonic' regionalism. We explore the contribution of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez in defining and promoting a distinctly new approach to the Latin American integration project. Chavez played a crucial role in the process by setting the agenda of integration and by pushing the boundaries of regional debate towards ideas, institutions and practices that initially seem radical but are often accepted through the passage of time. The article elaborates this thesis by exploring Chavez's role in constructing the political and economic architecture that has emerged in the region over the past decade. While not solely responsible for these developments, Chavez was a driving force, a fact with pertinent and uncertain consequences given his recent death troubles and the uncertainty over the future of Chavismo